Sonali’s PgCert

This week I read Addison’s ‘Doubting Learning Outcomes in Higher Education Contexts: from Performativity towards Emergence and Negotiation’ (2014). The article critically analyses the benefits and disadvantages of Learning Outcomes (LOs) in an organised manner. Addison uses themes of accountability, inclusive principles, curriculum design, learning, specifics around art and design, and beginning and developing teaching to analyse LOs. I mostly agree with the theory and principles shared in the article, and I see its value in the case of reimagining higher education systems. Where I hesitate is idealism versus practicalities.

I have found that in my research and practices, I tend to be a pragmatist. I believe in the power of collective action and I hope for idealistic futures. But I am also a cynic and don’t believe that meaningful change is possible when it comes to large-scale structures and systems – at least in my lifetime. I still remember the hope so many of us felt in India during the rise of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in 2011 (Biswas 2013) by activists in an anti-corruption movement. For the first time in my life, I witnessed people from my generation – in their teens and early 2os – donning the symbols of the movement, on the streets, campaigning against corruption. Fast-forward (through a tumultuous, complex decade-and-a-half) to today, and the AAP leader and former Chief Minister of Delhi has been caught in corruption scandals himself (Choahan 2025).

Even in my research, which examines the postcolonial impact of British book publishing practices on the ‘Global South’, I offer pragmatist solutions – steps we can take today in the systems that already exist – to improve the situation. My fear is that if we keep rigid about widespread structural change, our idealism may stop us from helping people who are impacted today. Addison critiques the LOs for their ‘neoliberal “performativity”‘ (2014, p 315). One could argue that UAL’s policies around social, racial and climate justice can fall into this ‘performativity’ – but I am glad that these social principles are being embedded into organisational policy. Whether intentions are sincere or ‘performative’ at different stages of funding, hiring, curriculum design, or teaching, emphasis is being laid on social justice, so staff is being made to tick that box in their work. Social justice is already core to my research, practice and teaching, and the changes to LOs and Assessment Briefs make it easier for me to incorporate my research and knowledge on social justice into my teaching. For others, it may be more of an ask. While we can question the authenticity of their changes to meet UAL’s social justice principles, we can admit that including teaching and assessments on social justice are creating an environment for our students to consider these debates and become more critical thinkers and practitioners.

I think back to the quote we discussed in Workshop 2A by Paulo Freire: ‘Education does not change the world. Education changes people. People change the world.’ There are those who campaign for change on the streets, and some of these people are our colleagues. Their contribution is valid and needed for a better future. But, as Freire says, perhaps the primary role of the teacher is to create change in the classroom so that our students can go out into the world and enact societal change.

References

Addison, N (2014) ‘Doubting Learning Outcomes in Higher Education Contexts: from Performativity towards Emergence and Negotiation’. John Wiley & Sons, pp 313-325.

Biswas, S (2013) ‘A spectacular debut by a new Indian party’, BBC. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-25296412 (Accessed 11 March 2025).

Choahan, N (2025). ‘India’s “anti-corruption champion” loses Delhi election as $6m reno of official residence surfaces’, ABC News. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-13/india-anti-corruption-champion-arvind-kejriwal-loses-delhi-votes/104917860 (Accessed 11 March 2025).

I was assigned the chapter ‘Using Things’ by Ahmed (2019) this week. It made for an interesting read, but I struggled to connect it to teaching practices. I wondered that if I continued reading the book (which I may do at some point as I found the writing poetic in spots), it would make questioning the different facets of ‘use’ more clearly applicable to my teaching practice.

Although I have completed a PhD and am proud of my research skills and output, I still feel like an imposter at times with academics who use ‘academic speak’. I found this chapter to fall within that realm, and for a moment I hesitated whether I should be frank with my workshop group about my probably missing the point of the reading. I have appreciated others’ honesty in the group in asking questions or speaking up when they don’t understand something, which has been encouraging. So, I summarised the reading for my workshop group – in how Ahmed examines ‘use’, ‘in use’, ‘out of use’, and ‘unused’, among other aspects of ‘use’ – and clarified that I didn’t know how to apply it to our teaching practice. Of course, all I needed was a little prompt – a push, another perspective – and everything fell into place. A workshop peer mentioned how they inferred this reading with regards to the ‘usefulness’ of arts degrees – a never-ending debate. This prompted the rest of us to share our experiences of pursuing arts degrees, the kinds of reactions we received from our families and communities, whether we work in the same field as our degrees or how we are applying our degrees to our current careers, and of course the Tory government’s ‘Reskill’ ads (Bakare 2020).

It was interesting to learn from others’ experiences, since we had a mixed group comprising a library staff member, technicians, and lecturers. One of them works on the sculpture degrees, and is thus fine-arts focused. For herself and her students, it would be a much larger fight to ‘justify’ the usefulness of their degrees and careers. This is especially frustrating since it seemed that during the COVID-19 pandemic, people began to truly appreciate the need for the arts, as Bradbury et al’s (2021) research shows. In my case, I teach on a vocational degree, with many units across both the BA and MA programmes focused on employability. Our students join the course with the expectation of graduating with skills and knowledge that would secure them a job in the media industry.

These discussions of ‘use’ reaffirm the unfortunate dangers that arts education is still in. This discussion helped me better appreciate the design of the degrees I teach on, and I have since been more active to share employability sessions happening at LCC with my students. While I agree with the significance of this more ‘practical’ knowledge, my teaching aim is to balance it with the philosophical, ethical and critical discussions that one can usually only engage in academic contexts. Our students should have the chance to expand themselves in different directions, and our role is to provide them with those tools.

References

Ahmed, S (2019) ‘Using Things’, What’s the Use?: On the Uses of Use. Duke University Press, pp 21-67. Available at: http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ual/detail.action?docID=5969504 (Accessed 11 February 2025).

Bakare, L (2020) ‘Government scraps ballet dancer reskilling ad criticised as “crass”‘, The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/oct/12/ballet-dancer-could-reskill-with-job-in-cyber-security-suggests-uk-government-ad (Accessed 11 March 2025).

Bradbury et al (2021) ‘The Role of the Arts during the COVID-19 Pandemic’. Available at: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/sites/default/files/download-file/UCL_Role_of_the_Arts_during_COVID_13012022_0.pdf (Accessed 11 March 2025).

Know and respond to our students’ diverse needs, with a focus on disability, chronic illness and neurodivergence

Introduction
I provide elements of pastoral care as a Year and Unit Leader. A recurring theme has been students’ diverse learning needs. In this case study, I focus on students with disabilities, chronic illnesses and/or neurodivergence and the two challenges of ‘knowing’ and ‘meeting’ their learning needs.

Evaluation
1. The Knowing
The first challenge is the complexities around knowing our students’ needs. In 1-to-1 tutorials, we follow a template of questions, one of which is to ask if they have any disabilities. I added the disclaimer that students need not share this with me and I can signpost resources at LCC. Some have felt comfortable sharing, and I realised that even within the second or third year, they had not reached out to Disability Services (DS). Students shared various reasons: shame of being tagged as ‘disabled’/’neurodivergent’; anxiety/stress around the process; and not knowing the support was available. My aim has been to build rapport with students so they feel comfortable sharing so I can address these reasons. Some students reported they did not have success applying for ISAs/ECs (lack of context and evidence). I have found quick responses sending emails as the Personal Tutor to DS, CCing the student.

2. The Meeting
While I can provide pastoral care to an extent, I am not a trained counsellor and must rely on what the student/DS relays to me as best suited for the student’s needs. Complexities arise because teaching is often aimed at the class median, even in terms of content difficulty (explored further in Case Study 2). My teaching practice for students with disability, chronic illness and/or neurodivergence has been shaped by Dundas and Farrell’s Inklusion Guide (2022). It focuses on making literary events accessible, but the learnings can be extended to the classroom, such as using captioning, simple fonts and designs (UAL 2025), including breaks, etc.

Moving Forward
I have addressed some of the tensions involved in the ‘knowing’ and ‘meeting’ of students’ diverse learning needs, but the complications do not end there. Harris in ‘Embracing the Silence: Introverted Learning and the Online Classroom’ (2022) focuses on online teaching practices for introverted students, but it can be extended to students with disability, chronic illness and/or neurodivergence. The foundation of what it means to be an ‘active participant’ is a commonality (discussed in Workshop 1A too). I have a student who at times stutters and is profusely apologetic. To encourage their class participation, I prodded them but now I wonder about its efficacy. I appreciate actor Michael Sheen’s patience and acceptance while engaging with a shy student; Sheen did not prod the student but just smiled encouragingly and waited and this is a tactic I will use in the future instead (BBC 2024).

I have questions remaining about student privacy/confidentiality. I am not entirely sure if teaching staff have the ‘right’ to be informed if a student has an ISA, yet it is easily discovered. This is logistically necessary during marking, but it does not maintain students’ right to privacy/confidentiality. Moreover, a student may be comfortable sharing their diagnosis with me but not want others to know and this can complicate matters, especially when their diagnoses require others to help in case of an emergency like an epileptic or allergy attack or a fire evacuation. Thus, what I next wish to interrogate is – how can we maintain the student’s privacy while ensuring they are being provided the support they need? I will do so by speaking with Carys Kennedy, a PgCert tutor specialising in disability inclusion (UAL nd), as well as DS.

As teaching staff catering to a full classroom, I am limited in ability, knowledge and resources to address every student’s diverse learning need. While in-person classroom time and tutorial time is finite, I can improve my knowledge and skillset so I can more efficiently utilise that finite resource of time.

References

BBC (2024) [WordPress will not let me share title of piece or the link of the site – but if you google ‘Michael Sheen shy student’, you will find it] (Accessed 10 Feb 2025).

Dundas, E and Farrell, J (2022) Inklusion Guide: A kickass guide to making literature events accessible for disabled people. Available at: https://www.inklusionguide.org/download (Accessed 10 Feb 2025).

Harris, K (2022) ‘Embracing the Silence: Introverted Learning and the Online Classroom’, Spark: UAL Creative Teaching and Learning Journal, Vol 5 Issue 1, pp 101-104.

Misra, S (2025) ‘Case Study 2’, Sonali’s PgCert. Available at: https://studyon.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2025/03/13/case-study-2-teaching-an-international-classroom/ (Accessed 18 March 2025).

UAL (nd) ‘The Disability Service’. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/students/student-services/disability-and-dyslexia (Accessed 18 March 2025).

” (nd) ‘Support for disabled and dyslexic students’. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/students/library-services/using-the-libraries/disabled-dyslexic-students (Accessed 18 March 2025).

” (nd) ‘Extenuating Circumstances and Time Out’. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/study-at-ual/course-regulations/extenuating-circumstances (Accessed 18 March 2025).

” (2025) Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/brand/branded-templates (Accessed 10 Feb 2025).

” (nd) ‘Carys Kennedy’. Available at: https://researchers.arts.ac.uk/3028-carys-kennedy (Accessed 10 Feb 2025).

I read ‘The Charismatic Lecturer’ (2004) by Macfarlane before Week 1B workshop, and it turned out that I focused on the entirely ‘wrong’ point. What we ended up discussing in the workshop was the process of peer observation. I should have seen this coming, since it of course led smoothly into discussions of our own peer observations (very clever!). But what I focused on as I read the piece was a conundrum that has niggled at me for many months now – how do we, as teaching staff, encourage diverse opinions while holding our own?

I have had discussions with colleagues about how we must remain impartial, unbiased in class. We must create an atmosphere where students can share opposing views freely and not feel judged. I take this point – I grew immensely while studying at my own undergraduate university in India due to classroom debates… but also because I studied at an all women’s college and in a course that was left-leaning and feminist. It made me a critical thinker and helped shape my political views to the extent that I did a PhD on the postcolonial impact that the British publishing industry has had on former colonies such as India. This PhD is highly relevant to the course I teach on, but it is of course a highly political research topic too. How do I utilise my research in class while maintaining ‘impartiality’? Do we need ‘impartiality’ on topics such as colonialism? And don’t UAL’s own social, racial and climate justice policies take a certain left-leaning stance (UAL nd)? UAL states in its ‘Breadth of Focus’ changes in its ‘Social Purpose Implementation Plan’ (UAL nd) that UAL will hone in on a set of priorities for the institution and this will be embedded in different aspects, including ‘Teaching’ (UAL nd):

Figure 1: Screenshot of UAL’s Social Purpose Implementation Plan (UAL nd) focusing on the ‘Breadth of Focus’

How can we embed these policies in our teaching yet remain politically unbiased?

So far, discussing my research on postcolonialism with students and staff at LCC has not elicited a response indicating that they miss the good ol’ days of the British Raj or that one people deserve to be oppressed by another. But what happens if I ever have a student who holds that view? This is not a thought experiment – it is the consideration of a very real possibility. We often stereotype artists and art students as being left-leaning, but that is of course a sweeping generalisation (Clarity 2o21; Fouweather 2023). Are the effects – ill or positive – of colonialism a topic that I must encourage discussion on in class so that I am inclusive of diverse perspectives? Can one truly both-side this argument?

References

Clarity, K (2021) ‘The Plight of the Conservative Artist in a Liberal World’, The Imaginative Conservative. Available at: https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2021/03/plight-conservative-artist-kay-clarity.html (Accessed 16 March 2025).

Fouweather, L (2023) ‘Why Do Creative People Tend To Be Left-Wing? ‘, Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/@lisafouweather/why-do-creative-people-tend-to-be-left-wing-18c3c654de08 (Accessed 16 March 2025).

Macfarlane, B (2004) ‘The Charismatic Lecturer’, Teaching with Integrity: The ethics of higher education practice. London: RoutledgeFalmer.

Misra, S (2024) Whose Words Are We Reading? The Cartelisation of Anglophone Trade Book Publishing: the case of India.

UAL (nd) ‘Social Purpose’. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/social-purpose (Accessed 16 March 2025).

UAL (nd) ‘Social Purpose Implementation Plan’. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0024/411486/social-purpose-implementation-plan.pdf (Accessed 18 March 2025).

For my 20-minute microteaching session using object-based learning (OBL), I wanted to combine some theory on crafting a fleshed-out character for long-form journalism with an activity. I have used this combination before in creative writing workshops with children and adults in multiple countries – India, the UK, Sweden. Since the English-language literature in these cultures follows similar literary norms, the activity has been relevant for different audiences. I conducted this activity for the first time as part of an academic curriculum last year at LCC for my BA Year 2 students. It was received well then too, but I wondered if I could push it further by bringing in OBL.

I was not aware of the OBL pedagogy or that I had already engaged with it before. In an Artist Residency at The University of Edinburgh Museums (SGSAH 2022) a few years ago, I was asked to create creative writing workshops and activities that would engage people with the Museums’ collections. These workshops were aimed at people with low-level mental health concerns. This happened during the first few stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, so all the workshops took place virtually, as did the OBL – the curators showed attendees the images of the objects or the objects themselves.

In my microteaching session, I wanted to handle the objects myself although the teaching was again delivered virtually. I chose not to have any slides, especially as UCL uses research data to discuss how students across disciplines ‘thought object-based learning was a more effective method of learning than a lecture or talk’ (UCL nd). As a self-proclaimed geek, I happened to have action figurines of some of my favourite fictional characters – serendipity! I held up the figurines of Deadpool (Marvel) and Chewbacca (Star Wars), turn by turn, and asked the attendees if the physicality of the characters indicated anything about their personas. I received apt responses that I engaged with.

Figure 1: Screenshot of MS Teams call showcasing my chosen object, a Deadpool bust, for microteaching activity on creating fleshed-out characters (Misra 2025)

I delivered a brief introduction to the concepts of the significance of characters in stories, and flat/cardboard/two-dimensional vs round/fleshed-out/three-dimensional characters. I referenced creative writing practitioners and scientific research. One feedback I received from the group was that I could have gone into more detail about these two kinds of characters and illustrate with some examples, which I have noted for future delivery. This ‘talk’ and OBL portion took about 5–7 minutes.

I then moved to the activity, which I wanted the attendees to spend the most time on. I directed the attendees to a Sandbox Padlet I had created for them to draw upon (or write words, if they didn’t feel comfortable drawing details) and gave them the option to use paper-and-pen. I had created an example to illustrate what I meant:

Figure 2: Example of the stick figure illustration on Sandbox Padlet for the microteaching activity (Misra 2025)

The attendees later mentioned that they liked having these choices as they catered to different proficiencies and comfort levels. All the attendees opted to use Sandbox. I took a minute to explain the simple draw-and-colour tools they would need for this activity and pointed the tools out on the browser, checking if the attendees had all understood. This eased the use of Sandbox, although it was almost everyone’s first time using it. In the activity, I discussed how our senses can be used to create round, well-thought-out characters and how we would use our senses of sight, sound, smell and touch. I provided prompts as everyone drew/wrote, giving them a minute or two before moving to the next sense.

We had about 5 minutes remaining, which was enough time for 1–2 attendees to share their characters and talk a bit about them. It was interesting to see people’s different approaches and them reflect upon their character-creation processes:

Figure 3: Screenshots of microteaching activity participants’ work

I validated each attendee’s process as the activity was open to interpretation and they were free to go a realistic vs fantastical route and choose what details to highlight. I also did this with the aim to build confidence.

Some other constructive feedback I received was that it would be helpful to clarify the learning objectives of this activity from the get-go so that the learning could be reinforced. Overall, the feedback was positive and the attendees said that they were engaged, enjoyed reading the objects, and the step-by-step instructions were helpful. One said they were curious about where this activity would lead – which I saw as a part of the clarifying-learning objectives-feedback, but I also took it positively that they were eager to continue learning.

This microteaching session reinforced my faith in this activity and helped me evolve it using OBL to apply my theoretical arguments. It was interesting to see how objects could be usefully brought in a writing unit, as it may not be the most intuitive method. OBL may be more frequently used in design courses [such as Hardie (2015) discusses] or engaging with museums’ collections [as seen in my residency experience or as UCL (nd) discusses] – but aided me in my text-focused unit too. The feedback was helpful, and I will adapt my delivery accordingly when I teach this unit in the next academic year.

References

Hardie, K (2015) ‘Innovative pedagogies series: Wow: The power of objects in object-based learning and teaching’. Available at: https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets.creode.advancehe-document-manager/documents/hea/private/kirsten_hardie_final_1568037367.pdf (Accessed 7 Feb 2025).

SGSAH (2022) ‘SGSAH Research: Sonali Misra’. Available at: https://sgsahresearch.com/portfolio/sonali-misra/ (Accessed 19 March 2025).

UCL (nd) ‘Teaching & Object-Based Learning’. Available at: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/culture/schools/teaching-object-based-learning (Accessed 7 Feb 2025).

Storytelling is my jam, even within academic scholarship. While teaching a unit on creative magazine writing to my BA 2nd year students, I shared research about how humans retain information better when we learn them as part of a story (Cooke 2012) . It must be true for songs too, since I can recall the musical notes of Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’ that my music teacher taught us in the tune of the song when I was about 12 – E E F G G F E D C C D E…. I met my teacher at a school reunion a couple of years ago and sang these notes back to his wondrous joy.

Video: Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’ from Symphony No’ 9 link on YouTube (FreeSheetPianoMusic 2013)

Savage uses a similar technique of storytelling in her essay ‘”The New Life”: Mozambican Art Students in the USSR, and the Aesthetic Epistemologies of Anti-Colonial Solidarity’ (2023). Instead of just listing names, Savage uses historical narratives to platform voices often not heard in research and scholarship, ie, people of colour and people from the ‘Global South’. She creates a record of names of African artists and art students, which I found powerful.

Besides this, two other points struck me in the paper. The first was the foundational concept of whether art can be taught and examined. Who decides what is ‘good’ taste? Isn’t taste subjective and also dependent on cultural traditions? This is a thought I return to when teaching and – more importantly – assessing my students’ creative work. This is made more complicated when I teach students hailing from literary, linguistic and cultural traditions I am not familiar with. How can I teach them yet not impose my societally learnt standards on to them?

Related to this worry, is the second point in Savage’s essay that I was fascinated by, the cheeky outcome of a postcolonial and neocolonial attitude. The Mozambican students could push the boundaries of what was accepted politically in the USSR institutions because the Soviet instructors didn’t know much about Mozambique culture and history (though the Mozambican students were expected to know all about the Soviet Union). This got me thinking about certain cultures being treated as secondary and also us supervising students from cultures we may not be familiar with due to that hierarchy. Do the students from the UK and US have an advantage when conducting research about nations that hold hegemonic power? We can guide those students on not just research framework but also point them towards literature and share knowledge with them. Due to my Indian background, I can also offer similar support to my Indian students. Whereas, if we are supervising students from countries from the ‘East’ or ‘Global South’, we could only guide them on the rigour of their research. We may not hold contextual knowledge in those cases.

I say all of this from the personal experience of being an Indian student in the UK. I have felt a communication and knowledge gap with my teachers at different institutions because as an Indian I grew up knowledgeable about the US and the UK, but they did not turn that curious glance towards India due to postcolonialism. Now, in my position as a teacher in the UK, my aim is to provide better support to my students, but I am aware of the logistical challenges too – I cannot be familiar with the cultures of every country.

References

Cooke, E (2012) ‘How Narratives Can Aid Memory’, The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/15/story-lines-facts (Accessed 16 March 2025)

FreeSheetPianoMusic (2013) ‘Beethoven – “Ode to Joy” from Symphony No.9 Easy Piano Version’, YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbXiKLA58SE (Accessed 16 March 2025).

Savage, P (2023) ‘”The New Life”: Mozambican Art Students in the USSR, and the Aesthetic Epistemologies of Anti-Colonial Solidarity’, Art History. DOI: 10.1111/1467-8365.12692.

Welcome to myblog.arts. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Hi! I’m Sonali (pronounced pretty much the way you think it is: So-na-lee). I work full-time as a Lecturer at LCC in Journalism & Publishing, teaching across the BA Magazine Journalism and Publishing and the MA Publishing degrees. I’m a recent joinee, just shy of completing my first year on the job and in London. I’m new to teaching as well, so I’m hoping to develop my teaching practice through the PgCert.